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Family Influence In The Christmas Turkey By George Saunders, And Oxherding Tale

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Although the works of fiction The Christmas Turkey, by Mário de Andrade, Home, by George Saunders, and Oxherding Tale, by Charles Johnson, all contain a main protagonist that grows with every chapter, the stories fail to outline the impact of a father on the main protagonist. Family influences everyone. Even if one does not have a family, that absence alone influences their life. Hence, acknowledging family influence, specifically fatherly influence in my essay, is of importance. In fictional literature, stereotypically fathers create the foundation upon which families are built. If the father is absent or passes away, the family falls apart, as in Andrade and Saunders’ stories. On the other hand, the father of the main protagonist from Oxherding Tale does not have a sound foundation and thus throws his son into confusion. In this essay, I will be exploring the significance of a son succeeding his father and how that relates to the portrayal of fathers in literature. I will also reach beyond and propose that the father in fiction is a stereotypical, yet needed, “safe place” for the protagonist. On the first page of Home, Mike, the main protagonist, meets his mother’s newest boyfriend, Harris. The story is never clear on what happened to Mike’s original father. This ambiguity already sets the stage for an unsound foundation. Harris further alienates Mike in an attempt to be friendly by saying “’My house is your house’” (Saunders 179). The house Harris speaks of, though, was

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